The software integrates with Adobe's existing Creative Suite applications such as InDesign to let designers produce digital publications for Apple's iPad, RIM's PlayBook, Motorola's Xoom, and Samsung's Galaxy Tab lines of Android-based tablets. It also dovetails with digital distribution systems, including Apple's App Store Subscriptions and Google One Pass. And it comes with analytics services from Adobe's Omniture acquisition so that publishers can track details about how people use the digital publications.

Adobe is a major power when it comes to selling software for personal computers, but it's working to adapt to the new era of smaller, more-mobile devices. It has basic Photoshop versions for iPhone and Android phones and offers the Adobe Ideas app for sketching on iPads. The company is also working on more elaborate software for tablets, including an Adobe Journal technology demonstration app for drawing and sketching on Android devices.

Journal includes a variety of drawing devices, Photoshop-like features for adding graphical elements to a drawing, and tools for panning, zooming, and moving among different pages. It's based on Adobe's cross-platform AIR software foundation, meaning that Journal could likely be ported to other operating systems--even iPads, using an Adobe packaging system that turns AIR apps into native apps.

In contrast, the Digital Publishing Suite isn't for ordinary consumers with tablets, but rather for businesses trying to reach those consumers. The version released today is for large publishers; for smaller outfits, Adobe's Professional Edition is due to ship late in the second quarter, Adobe said.

Also at that time, Adobe plans to release the Folio Producer Service, which will let publishers directly upload content from InDesign, Adobe's software for design and layout.

Pricing of the Enterprise Edition depends on a custom quote from Adobe based on access to services for creating and distributing publications, Adobe said in a blog post.

About the author

Stephen Shankland has been a reporter at CNET since 1998 and covers browsers, Web development, digital photography and new technology. In the past he has been CNET's beat reporter for Google, Yahoo, Linux, open-source software, servers and supercomputers. He has a soft spot in his heart for standards groups and I/O interfaces.
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